Humans are pathetic

We are the worst, most pathetic race on this planet, which is now nothing more than a dying sanctuary for us humans and whatever life is left that we didn't murder yet. We consider ourselves the best, the most smart, blah blah blah, yet we destroy the world we live on, and kill what we depend on. We decapitate millions of trees just for a stupid holiday which is in the honor of a stupid religion (which also calls women property, tells people to abuse slaves, and is the root for homophobia), yet we complain when one human dies. We consider Hitler to be evil, because he killed some of the human race, while trying to save the other races of the planet.We only care for ourselves, we NEVER pay attention to anything else.

We are selfish, wake up america

Third world: 3 generations under the same roof, People all help each other, defend and support their neighbours. First world: Facebook, glamour photos, instagram. It never ends. We the people need to be the helpful beings we once were, not self centered, twitter posting, amoeba, (not an exaggeration) that we are today.

We are selfish, wake up america

Third world: 3 generations under the same roof, People all help each other, defend and support their neighbours. First world: Facebook, glamour photos, instagram. It never ends. We the people need to be the helpful beings we once were, not self centered, twitter posting, amoeba, (not an exaggeration) that we are today.

We are selfish, wake up america

Third world: 3 generations under the same roof, People all help each other, defend and support their neighbours. First world: Facebook, glamour photos, instagram. It never ends. We the people need to be the helpful beings we once were, not self centered, twitter posting, amoeba, (not an exaggeration) that we are today.

We are selfish, wake up america

Third world: 3 generations under the same roof, People all help each other, defend and support their neighbours. First world: Facebook, glamour photos, instagram. It never ends. We the people need to be the helpful beings we once were, not self centered, twitter posting, amoeba, (not an exaggeration) that we are today.

Yes, every action that we take is only to benefit ourselves.

We as humans are designed to be like any other species: we have to take care of ourselves. Without this self preservation deep rooted in a species they die out, such as the dodo bird, which died out because they weren't able to adapt to the fact that they were being killed out by another species that they trusted. Now as humans we are more developed then my previous example and so we have developed a way to keep self preservation and other instincts, namely our sociability, in balance with each other. However, when it comes down to it, our actions always benefit us and whether we like it or not, we only do things that we either know consciously or subconsciously benefit us and anything else that happens is an after effect. Take for example our reproductive need. Now as all people learn, we want to have kids. It is once again a deep seeded impulse that we have as humans and that all species have. However, when we have children, we are able to deceive ourselves that we do all the things we do to them for whatever reason, whether it be that you love them or that you want them to have the best or even that you want them to have what you had when you had growing up (for better or for worse). All those deceptions are just that though, deceptions. The real reason we want do what we do to them is that we want them to survive, and this is because that would be our way of surviving. Having children isn't something you do because you want to have something to care for. You have them because you want to leave your legacy on the world. Its a completely selfish reason and that impulse is one that is deeply seeded in all humans. Another point is one that I have seen made above and it is the destruction of the environment. It is without dispute that humans have had a negative impact on the environment ever since the Industrial Revolution, but no one brings up the why. Why do humans destroy the environment. The answer is simple. We are selfish. We pump millions upon millions of CO2 into the atmosphere, cut down huge plots of forests and we destroy so many habitats in doing so. But why? We only do this because we want something from it. It always comes back to that reason. We either want more housing so more of us can come into this world or we want advancements that will keep us from getting sick or to allow us to live longer. It always comes back to us thinking only of us. As I stated throughout my entire argument, we are selfish: no ifs, ands, or buts. This isn't due to any choice on our part but is instead due to our being a successful species and having the one attribute that any species must have: self preservation.

Is there anyway we can work together to solve this problem?

Israel is under attack and isolated by the world. Our Ranches are under attack our land is being stolen. Our environment requires repair. Most importantly, our poor and lower classes cannot afford to buy meat - even for Shabbat! This is wrong! Join me and help strengthen Israel with the Israel Longhorn Project: http://longhornproject.org

The human animal is inherently selfish

Perhaps the greatest contrivance in human evolution is the notion of "the self." By virtue of the fact that each and every one of us believes wholeheartedly in our own significance, our own primacy, we are selfish. One could conceive of humans as barely sentient creatures that imagined virtually everything we are able to experience in reality. Our capacity to label, quantify and organize information and ascribe meaning and direction to the shift in matter gives us a kind of god-like ability that is not evident within what we believe are lesser animals. I have spoken to and interacted with various people from all walks of life, and from what I can discern, none of them are "happy" or "satisfied." This is because we are not biologically programmed to be either. Almost all humans strive for the same thing and participate in an artificially constructed social system that perpetuates suffering and ecological domination. Most of us believe in the idea of "deserving" more, having more, being better...But in truth, we own nothing, are never truly better and don't deserve a thing. We are entitled, and the narratives we have prescribed to for centuries have become so deeply entrenched in our genetic makeup that we are all convinced that we are all special and that we are all worthy of happiness and fulfillment. This is fallacious, and our presence on the planet has triggered certain events that are now unavoidable. Billions of animals are slaughtered yearly for our benefit, we produce tonnes of waste and expand at an exponential rate without any real understanding of the consequences. We believe in time but cannot see that it is a man-made construct and that in fact there is no time, no linear upward progression or improvement in circumstances. We all dream this life, believe that we're going somewhere afterwards and that if we do this or that or buy this or that, we're going to be happy forever. It's a terrible, terrible joke, and every day we live the worse it all gets. Life never considered the ramifications of its own ambition, cannot conceive of an end, yet all of us must inevitably perish. In the expanse of infinity we are but a drop in the ocean, and we are an aspect of nature that should not have been. Our consciousness is an incontrovertible mistake, and we are all going to pay dearly for our egregious selfishness and lack of foresight. Humanity had its shot, but it never thought about what it was...What it was doing...And now we sing our swansong - and ultimately, it's for the best.

Selfishness is inherent

Humans evolved to survive or we wouldn't be here. Selfishness is an inherent part of this, if there were a truly totally unselfish person they would never get ahead. When they had anything in excess of what they need to live they would buy or give food, clothes, etc.. To others. Even in a situation where there wasn't enough for two the unselfish thing would be to let the other eat but then the unselfish one would die if that happened regularly. But we also evolved to improve our survival and quality of life through cooperative behavior and reciprocity. This is also at the basis selfish though but in a positive way. Volunteering and giving to charity is a positive thing but these things benefit ourselves as well by improving the world we are part of and rely on. A parent or person who loves someone's actions may come close to unselfishness sometimes in a way but at their base they are still seeking reward through the relationship, the accomplishment of being able to enjoy feeling responsible for the outcomes in the receipts life, or in the case of parents a legacy they leave in passing on their genes.

Everyone is naturally self centred.

All we think of is ourselves. I mean, what makes `us` more special than any other thing on the planet? We're just smart monkeys in clothes. Building a house? KIll everything around the area you've bought without a thought. Trees, plants. Animals, insects. Who cares about them? As long as you get your dream house. We ARE self centred. Who doesn't see themselves in the centre? Who's perspective are we supposed to see things from? Who's vision are we supposed to have? Someone else's? If you have an opinion you technically are selfish because you're thinking of yourself. It's unavoidable.

Humans are selfish because of how the society brings us up

We all know the feeling of guiltiness. If our gene wants us to be selfish, we won't develop the feeling of guiltiness. Guiltiness is developed to warn us when we are about to harm the same species. But if we commit that sin enough times, guiltiness will be stunned and brings no effect, that's why lying is so easy to many people.

We are both selfish and altruistic.

We may want to believe it's in our nature but honestly, the decision is up to us to decide as we all have free will. You can blame nature, or religion or even the parents but we all have the ability to change ourselves. That's how we've been able to survive as long as we have.

Humans are selfish whether they knew it or not.

Humans are the only ones who has the ability to think, therefore they are selfish. They know how to greed like no other species. They occupy every space in the world to live, destroying everything in their path. They gave no thought to what their rampant actions can do to the world.

Humans are selfish whether they knew it or not.

Humans are the only ones who has the ability to think, therefore they are selfish. They know how to greed like no other species. They occupy every space in the world to live, destroying everything in their path. They gave no thought to what their rampant actions can do to the world.

No

Humans are not born either way. They are raised to be one way or the other. The problem is that too many kids are raised to be selfish and end up being a selfish adult just like their parent. If they are raised the correct way than they will not be an adult that is selfish.

We are selfish, wake up america

Third world: 3 generations under the same roof, People all help each other, defend and support their neighbours. First world: Facebook, glamour photos, instagram. It never ends. We the people need to be the helpful beings we once were, not self centered, twitter posting, amoeba, (not an exaggeration) that we are today.

Not all acts are selfish.

There are many times in a person’s life that they act selfless. Soldiers sacrifice their lives for other people all the time. A parent would not think twice about giving everything for their children’s well being. In addition, some people do nice things just because they can and want to. There is a lot of selfishness in our world but if people are being selfless than you cannot say we are inherently this way

No - We are taught selfishness

In a world that is now become more dominated by capitalism we have been socialized to be selfish. In a society where money is put first, yes people will behave this way. Money is not a real thing but a construct of the human imagination that has pushed us into a type of mental slavery. Have you ever thought about why so many people think "humans are inherently selfish" its because we were socialized to think that so that systems of capitalism can continue. If we think that humans are inherently selfish, then we also think that those who are trampling on other people for monetary gain are simply doing what they were born to do when this is not the case. Simple readings and experiments from sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, and biologists prove that the only inherent thing that humans need other than shelter, food, and water is social interaction. If we were able to look at our society as based on social interaction rather than a children's video game of who can win the most money...Our society would be a lot happier. The happiest countries in the world are countries that are collectivists and socialists. They put collective needs above individualistic concerns.

No absolutely not!

Humans re not inherently selfish, they are just ignorant of what they want and how they can get it. We all want to be secure and happy. We just go about it in a wrong way. We have the capability to beyond the immediate future (unlike most other animals) and seeing that if we keep destroying nature which is sustaining us we will neither be secure nor happy. We don't know enough how our actions affect the ecosystem. Need for security and self preservation is in all species, but only human beings have a brain which can override that default mechanism (Daniel Goleman's book "Emotional Intelligence" starts with such a example) and do actions which could be considered a sacrifice (Yagya in sanskrit). The thing is human beings are the only beings who can turn self-preservation into psychological insecurity and use their mind to exploit others and hoard. I would like to say that it has been scientifically proves that altruistic action have positive psychological benefits. A study found that controlling for other factors volunteers had 44% lower mortality rates than non-volunteers. Another study observed brains of people in a fMRI while making decision if they would keep $128 given by the researchers or would donate it to a altruistic cause. Interestingly investigators found that the same reward system was activated whether the participant chose to keep the money for themselves or they whether they donated it. But more interestingly altruistic choices also activated anterior sector of the prefrontal cortex which is one of the most recently evolved brain regions. The brain region that are responsible for making us uniquely human. So after all "Joy of Giving" has a anatomical basis in the brain.So, in essence we, our brains are designed to benefit from giving, being altruistic. It may sound counterintuitive but being unselfish is the answer to being happy not the other way.

We choose to be Selfish.

"No Humans are not born either way. They are raised to be one way or the other." Although a lot of arguments almost made me change my answer.I think people choose to be selfish. If I saw someone drowning, I could either save them or say I should just leave no need to wet myself; someone else might probably save them. I'm being selfish because I don't want to get involve. At that moment I'm doing what I can to not get myself anywhere around that situation. On the other hand Hero 101, who was always thought to be kind and put other before themselves. Will save that person. Being selfish just depends on who you are and the thing that might have made you think people just don't deserve your help. People in fire should just remain there and die, because help is the last thing they are ever going to get from you. You would rather die than do something selfless.